Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Probably, those that aren't familiar with anything but the DD, won't record much else.Hopefully, someone will shoot a few of the more obscure tunes.

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Background: I haven't seen Journey since the Augeri days, right before his vocals went to hell and, well, we all know what happened around these parts. I saw them quite a few times right after they came back post-Perry with Augeri, including things like the Arrival tour. As a huge Styx fan, they also have their core songs they play (both incarnations - DDY's band and Styx themselves), and I get the whole "hit fatigue" thing.

Having said that, I was in Japan because I was originally supposed to be in this part of the world for work next week. That changed, so I decided to keep Japan as a sorely needed vacation. When I heard that Journey would a) be in Japan the same time I was and b) were doing Escape/Frontiers, it was a no brainer. Sign me up! When I later found out E/F was only the second Tokyo show (I leave before then), I was initially disappointed, but hey, Japan, right? Also, I hate package tours, they had not announced Vegas (which I *hate* and avoid if I can), and wanted to see them with Smitty before he leaves again.

I've only ever seen one other show in Japan, and that was Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at Budokan in Tokyo a few years back. I had an idea what to expect from that show in terms of audience, et al. Not surprsingly, Osako-Jo Hall reminded me of Budokan in ways. If you're used to an American concert experienvce, it's quite different and not in a bad way.

Enough rambling - how about the show? Fantastic. See the set above. Yes it was what I'd call "The Dirty Dozen Plus". It didn't matter. My disappointment with it not being an E/F show went away. If you step back - and I'm a musician myself, set lists are hard to do well to please everyone - the 1-2-3 punch of SW/BGTY/OTY is about as good as it gets.

I only noticed a handful of things like missed notes or awkward things. There were two that stood out to me:1. The bluesy intro to Lights stopped, NS did his spiel, and then they started. To me, it killed the flow. He should have talked over it and gone right into it. Bad moment for me.2. Travis did a good job with Chain Reaction. However, when it came to band intros/bows at the end, they didn't intro him nor did he bow. Really bad form.

Some general obervations:1. Having seen them a few times with Deen, they were nowehere near as good as they are with Smitty. I saw him with Vital information in NYC a year or two ago, and to see him on a bigger stage playing rock is amazing. Always wanted to see Journey with him. To say he's amazing doesn't do him jusitce. He really propels this band, and his many years of experience in other genres really showed through on a song like La Raza. As a musician (I'm a bass player), it was amazing to watch him especially after having seen him up close in a compete 180 from this show. The worst/best part? He made it all look so effortless. It didn't look like he even broke a sweat. He will be missed when someone else comes in after. His are hard shoes to fill.

2. Partially due to #1, they were firing on all cylinders and tighter than I remember.

3. The addition of Travis IMO is a good one. It frees up Jon to just play piano, or add rhythm guitar to things that need filling out. The arrangements sounded fuller. Plus, he can sing and will replace Jon when he decides to go full gospel ha

4. Jon did not look bored, and the whole band seemed into it the entire night.

5. The crowd was different than the Clapton/Winwood show. They were standing at parts, singing along, etc. For all the bad crap going on in the world, to see a room full of people in a country where English is not their native language singing along just like everyone else back home is heartening. Apparently I'm not as cynical as I think I am.

Awesome, great review!! I was wondering what nights they were gonna do all of Escape/Frontiers.......good to know!! I really hope we get some great footage/audio from some source, especially of "Troubled Child"!! Very curious how that one will work live!

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Thank You Tokyo for the very warm welcome tonight at our 1st Budokan JP see you tomorrow for the 2nd - we will film Escape / Frontiers show

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

I'm not a musician or a vocalist, but it seems like such a bad fucking idea to film the SECOND show the day after the first. Wouldn't you want to wait until Arnel had a couple of days of rest? Dude still sounds great for his age, but you can tell he's diminished.

'Nothing was bigger for Journey than 1981’s “Escape” album. “I have to attribute that to Jonathan coming in and joining the writing team,” Steve Perry (Feb 2012).'

@NealSchonMusic Is it true that @stevesmithdrums is only sticking with the band through the end of 2017?

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

@NealSchonMusic Is it true that @stevesmithdrums is only sticking with the band through the end of 2017?

Yea! I anxious to know what will happen now. I thought it was originally contracted for just 2016 & 2017. I'd love to see him remain, especially since Neal said next year will have heavy touring. (Although, Neal originally said the touring ends after the Vegas residency! HAHAHA!)

Gideon wrote:I'm not a musician or a vocalist, but it seems like such a bad fucking idea to film the SECOND show the day after the first. Wouldn't you want to wait until Arnel had a couple of days of rest? Dude still sounds great for his age, but you can tell he's diminished.

Fairly common occurrence to film the second night of any engagement. The first nights are often "dress rehearsals" for the video crews for shot blocking. And often by night #2, audio kinks in the hall have been worked out. Perry would probably be the first one to tell you that the singers' needs rarely factored into the business decisions. Besides, the vocals are very typically overdubbed later on anyway for these concert films.

Last edited by tater1977 on Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Big shoes to fill on this song, sorry to say he doesn't quite make it...IMHO.

This is on their 2nd night at Budokan that they were filming for release later.Yea sounds like his shoes come untied a few times there.

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com

Perry's good natured bonhomie & the world’s most charmin smile,knocked fans off their feet. Sportin a black tux,gigs came alive as he swished around the stage thrillin audiences w/ charisma that instantly burnt the oxygen right out of the venue.TR.com